New Delhi: After the Pulwama attack in which at least 40 CRPF soldiers were killed by a Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, the government on Friday said that it would take all possible diplomatic steps to ensure Pakistan’s complete isolation internationally.
Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale met envoys of the United Nation P5 countries – which includes China – the Gulf, Japan and European nations to brief them about Pakistan’s role in sponsoring terror.
The P5 refers to the United Nations Security Council’s five permanent members – United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France and China.
Hours earlier, Gokhale had summoned Pakistan’s High Commissioner to demand that Islamabad take “verifiable’ action against terror groups.
India’s high commissioner in Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has also been called to Delhi for consultations. According to news agency ANI, he will be in Delhi late on Friday to attend meetings at the External Affairs Ministry on Saturday.
On Friday morning, the Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status for Pakistan.
India appealed to all members of the international community to “support the proposal to list terrorists, including JeM chief Masood Azhar, as a designated terrorist and to ban terrorist organisations operating from territories controlled by Pakistan”.
Though nations like the US, the UK, Russia and France have asserted that they stand with India in combating the menace of terrorism, China broke its silence nearly a day later and still kept its stand on Masood Azhar unchanged.
On Thursday, a suicide bomber detonated a car-load of explosives next to a large convoy of 78 CRPF buses with over 2,500 personnel travelling on the highway from Jammu to Srinagar. At Pulwama, the car with 60 kg of explosives blew up, killing over 40 personnel reporting to duty after leave.